LETTER FROM ARMENIA

Writer attended a scientific meeting in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was the First International Conference on Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence held for 5 days in Sept., 1971. Host was Viktor Ambartsumyan, director of the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory. It was a gathering of about 40 learned men, mostly from the U.S. & the Soviet Union. Astronomers were in the majority but there were also biologists, anthropolgists, linguists & historians. The purpose of the meeting was to exchange ideas and to arrive at some agreement concering two practical questions. First, supposing that some intelligent societies exist elsewhere in the universe, what are the most promising & economical methods by which we might find out where they are? Second, supposing that the search for intelligent signals is a reasonable activity for astronomers to engage in, whose time and money & whose instruments are to be devoted to this task? The meeting was sponsored by the National Academies of Sciences of the U.S. & the Soviet Union. The subject of extraterrestrial intelligence or E.T.I. occupies a limbo on the borderline between science & science fiction. Tells about the meeting & mentions some of those present. They agreed on a formal statement that contained recommendations to their several national academies of sciences for a gradualist course of action & gave suggestions for developing the necessary instruments as they go along.

Recommended Stories

As the years passed, Tom grew more entrenched in his homelessness. He was absorbed in lofty fantasies and private missions, aware of the basest necessities and the most transcendent abstractions, and almost nothing in between.